Regional Appeals by HSE to Mark 40th Anniversary

To mark the 40^th anniversary of renowned safety watchdog, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), numerous businesses have faced a series of appeals across the country. The HSE have notably called for all businesses to “make the well-being of workers their top priority for the new financial year”, and seem to be following up accordingly to ensure compliance is bred throughout organisations in the UK. By contrasting a number of regional Health and Safety figures with the national averages, the safety regulator has identified that the main driver of differences in risk is an individual’s occupation, as opposed to where they work in the UK. Nevertheless, the regional variations make for interesting observation, as follows:

• The East Midlands, South West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber regions have higher average rates of ill health than the average British rate. In contrast, Scotland and London have statistically significantly lower than average rates.
• In the case of non-fatal injuries, the East Midlands and South West regions have higher rates than the average British rate and London has a rate which is statistically and significantly lower.
• The highest rates of fatal injuries in 2013/14 were in Scotland and Yorkshire and the Humber and the same areas have the highest rates averaged over a five year period.

Nationally, across Great Britain, there were 133 deaths at work in 2013/14. More than 79,500 injuries were formally reported, and over 1.1 million people are estimated to have been made ill. The HSE pointed out that this is a huge reduction from when HSE was formally established in January 1975. In 1974/75, a total of 651 employees alone were killed (not including self-employed workers). A source at the HSE said, “The stark decline is welcome, but local employers are being urged to review whether they can do more to protect their workforce.” The full statistics, including comparisons to previous years, are available online at http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/.